Montane shrew records in Montana climb sharply in early summer, from single digits in April to 113 in June and 96 in July, then fall off through fall. Shrews are active year-round, so this pattern almost certainly tracks when small-mammal trapping crews are in the field rather than any seasonal disappearance of the animal itself.
The refuge, lake, and river corridor named here span wetland, lakeshore forest, and riparian ground, all reasonable fits for a shrew that favors damp, cover-rich sites near water and conifer stands rather than open, dry terrain.
With 345 records, this shrew has a denser count than many small mammals mapped in Montana, all logged via GBIF specimen data rather than iNaturalist, since positively identifying a shrew to species almost always requires handling it. No NatureServe state rank is on file for the montane shrew in Montana, only a USGS NAS note confirming it isn’t considered a nonindigenous introduction here.
Full species profile
